COSTA BRAVA, SPAIN
Rooms from about £120
Three years ago, Catalan entrepreneur Carla Lloveras quit her job as a lawyer to pursue her deep-rooted passion for renovating old houses. ‘I love the materials they hide and like to imagine who lived there. Their spirit is unique and cannot be found in a new building,’ she explains. This, combined with her love for the Costa Brava, led the 30-year-old to a run-down 17th-century townhouse in the honey-hued town of Begur. She commissioned interior designers Quintana Partners, whose work she had discovered at Casa Telmo in Menorca – their eclectic eye and obsession with authenticity assured her they would capture the nature of the place without letting it get stuffy. The result has a gloriously handmade quality to it, big on details with plush finishes, from velvet headboards to embroidered towels.
A mandarin-tree painting pays homage to the fictional former owner, a flamboyant character nicknamed La Bionda; vintage armchairs flank an L-shaped coffee table lit by a beaded casino lamp from Avignon; hand-crafted ceramics heaving with charcuterie, cheese and artisanal breads fill the breakfast table. There’s more eye-candy upstairs in each of the eight bedrooms inspired by some of the 20th century’s most extraordinary female personalities, from flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya to Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. Ever dreaming up new ideas, Lloveras also plans to introduce pottery and flower-arranging workshops, in addition to the existing yoga retreats. A well-balanced collision of past and present, which brings light back to this old soul.